Cinematography

Yes Rick, it appears to be like everything else, it's all about the details.

Yes Gene, yes it is! Thanks for sharing your setup, nicely done.
Cheers

... Thanks for sharing your setup, nicely done.
Cheers

I wish it was my setup. It belongs to Shane Hurlbut, ASC.

https://www.hurlbutvisuals.com/blog/sha ... cle/?tm=ic

Another great DP passed away, Douglas Slocombe, age 103. Last movie: the third instalment of Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1989. I saw so many of his films.

http://variety.com/2016/film/people-new ... 201711843/


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Another great DP passed away, Douglas Slocombe, age 103. Last movie: the third instalment of Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1989. I saw so many of his films.

Dammit. And he was already a billion years old when he shot Raiders. Came out of retirement to do Last Crusade. Besides all the good Indy movies, Doug Slocombe also shot Rollerball, The Blue Max, The Lion in Winter, The Italian Job, the India sequence from Close Encounters of the Third Kind and was awarded an O.B.E. He was an adult during World War II. Just completely awesome. That generation is going away faster and faster and the world is a little less awesome because of it.

I believe the article I read mentioned he shot Raiders of the Lost Ark without an exposure meter.


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They used a meter for the "Berlin Airport" shots that were actually taken at San Francisco's Treasure Island Air terminal building 1. The 1937 Art Deco building was similar in design to the 1030's Berlin Terminal.
I saw some still production shots from that take, and an assistant was running around with what looked like a light meter. The Nazi flags were added in post, as the US Navy, who controlled Trasure Island at that time, would not allow the studio to drape the flags on the building.

Dude, that's Last Crusade. But, yeah, Slocombe supposedly never used a light meter. Makes sense if you've been doing it forever and just know your craft and tools. Back when your DIT was photo-chemical.

Oh, and the people using the light meters were the ILM unit. They were shooting live action plates for the matte painting. No first unit stuff. They, I think, would want to nail their exposure.



Follow the shadow line. Everything in sunlight is a painting. Everything above first floor, including the cars on the left, is a painting. This was back when they were still using Vistavision cameras and Photoshop was still an in-house ILM photo-stitching program on Thomas Knoll's Mac.

We need to ship some of the great minds here off to the Smithsonian for preservation of our natural treasures.


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You are correct Jason, got the two mixed up. I claim "Sr. Moment" here! Thanks for the correction. My office was in the 2nd floor behind the center windows, when I was the film industry location coordinator for Treasure Island. In the center of the parking lot/entrance shown there was a "Pan Pacific" fountain (next to the planter box) in Jason's photo they (the Navy) took out for the prroduction shots. Strange thing was, the fountain was never replaced by the Navy afterwards.

In April/May sunsets, this building turns a nice "golden" color, and all the brass fittings look like gold. I got a nice color transparency on 4x5 (shot with a 8x10 view camera) of this building during one of these "golden sunsets".

The April May time frame is when the sun just about sets directly behind the Golden Gate Bridge, from the sea, the two land points that create the SF Bay entrance, also look like they are full of gold, as they are washed in the warm golden light of the low setting sun. This low golden light is what gave the bay entrance its name, the "Golden Gate".
Cheers

Another great DP passed away, Douglas Slocombe, age 103. Last movie: the third instalment of Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1989. I saw so many of his films.

I believe the article I read mentioned he shot Raiders of the Lost Ark without an exposure meter.

Just goes to show, not using an exposure meter is detrimental to your health.

Marco Solorio's book is on sale for a limited time. Regularly $50, sale price $2.99. Includes everything associated with rigging BMD cameras up to the URSA. Of course the principles apply to other cameras as well.

https://twitter.com/onerivermedia/statu ... 0745280512


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Feast your eyes on these stills from John Brawley's work on SyFy's Hunters coming in April:

http://io9.gizmodo.com/heres-a-much-clo ... o9_twitter


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Interesting analysis of POV and story telling in relation to the Coen brothers...
https://vimeo.com/tonyzhou/coenbrothers

HDR



Perhaps this article by Alexis van Hurkman will be objective and accurate about high dynamic range. Things I've read lately are full of misinformation and I may as well have written an article (and I know nothing). This blog entry is by the well-respected author of the DaVinci Resolve user manual:

http://vanhurkman.com/wordpress/



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https://vimeo.com/channels/everyframeapainting/166319350

https://vimeo.com/channels/everyframeapainting/166319350

Indeed.

More about colour spaces. Click on the PDF link:

http://cinematiccolor.com


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Preparing for Cinematography is Good, and doing Cinematography is better, but talking about Cinematography over a ginger beer with your friends is best! Dropped by JB's shoot in Vancouver yesterday and just loved it. Here's to my vote for the most gracious host ever!



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Nice. If JB is ever in Texas, I'd come buy him a beer.

That's awesome Rick. Simply awesome !!!

Rick, you should have said - I would have flown up to join you with JB! Glad you had a great time.
Cheers

Denny, it was rather a last minute arrangement since I never knew if my US banking woes would come to completion which thankfully they did. The day before, I also tried all my usual hotels to find a room so I could stay overnight and catch the last day of shooting in Canada, but no one had a single vacancy due to the large surge in tourism BC this year and the low Canadian dollar. JB is off to Los Angeles after the wrap party this evening!


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No worries Rick, sorry you could not find a hotel room. Are the park benches all booked too?
I was just interjecting some fun Glad you had some fun, however. Wrap parties are a lot of fun, too.
Cheers

... I was just interjecting some fun
...

You got me!


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Finally an accurate colour temperature meter that's affordable, "there's an app for that" from Luma:

http://www.newsshooter.com/2016/09/23/p ... ur-iphone/

https://lumu.squarespace.com/


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Interesting... Nice find Rick, thanks for sharing it here.
Cheers

There are a lot of iOS apps related to hyperfocal depth of field. Does anyone have a favourite app they use that's dedicated to this purpose? And a bonus for something that can be read outdoors in sunlight, that would be nice! What circle of confusion value should I use for shooting 2K 2048x1152 photosites or 11.264x6.336mm or a diagonal of 12.927? CoC = 0.0086?

In the formula to calculate hyperfocal distance, should I use the actual lens focal length or equivalent focal length as compared to 135 film?

At this time when I'm shooting with the Fujinon, without ND filters, I'll be stopped down to T16 or so to get a good exposure but that makes traditional focussing nearly impossible. If I open the aperture to focus something, the screen will be so overexposed I can't see any detail. My subjects at the sports event will be in motion, so even zooming in to focus and pulling back to shoot isn't practical. I'm going to rely on the hyperfocal distance much of the time and need to memorize the hyperfocal distance for the 2K/HD window at various focal lengths using the zoom.


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Good idea Rick. However, the Hyperfocal distance is based on lens focal length and f/stop being used. Sensor crop factor does not change the HFD, only the f/stop at a given focal length. So the challenge will be to know how,the HFD changes as you zoom in and out. Shooting as wide as possible will, of course, give the greatest depthof filed at any given distance. HFD will be important as you zoom in to a longer focal length. Fuji should have a HFD chart available for your lens, if you can download or find one would be the best starting point. I do not know of any IOS apps. Otherwise, you,will have to calculate it.
Cheers

Thanks, Denny. So the focal length of lens is the real focal length, not the equivalent to 135 film. Good to know.

Now the only thing I have some doubts about is the circle of confusion value I should use. I know in my 35 film days, it seemed good to use 0.03 when I was typoucally producing 8x10" prints. But video is different. I'm not sure if I should be using 0.02 or 0.01 or 0.008 which makes a huge difference to the calculated value of the hyperfocal distance.

My gut feeling for this Sunday is that I should leave the Fujinon at home because I can't handle changing the zoom and focus at the same time. I can use the 50mm APO, there is only focus to change and I can do that. I know the results with the Fujinon would be better if I do some modest zooming where the hyperfocal distance will not vary much and cover the typical distances of the action. Knowing CoC is most important but what is it in this situation?


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I second PCam, forgot it had a DOF function.
Cheers.

Rick, as far as apps go, I like pCam. It has a dof calculator that also displays hyperfocal distance. It also allows you to enter a custom CoC. It has a lot of other useful modules for DPs.


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I went with Easy DoF. In the free version you can define one camera with custom Circle of Confusion (I went with 0.02 for video). The screen is a simple black type on light grey background with larger numbers that should be fine in daylight.

Ivon, curious if you know what CoC your app suggests for the URSA Mini 4.6K, or similar Super 35 camera.

The free version also shows you sunrise/sunset or moonrise/moonset and the golden hour and blue hour for Today. The paid version allows you to input any date and other options.

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I went with Easy DoF. In the free version you can define one camera with custom Circle of Confusion (I went with 0.02 for video). The screen is a simple black type on light grey background with larger numbers that should be fine in daylight.

Ivon, curious if you know what CoC your app suggests for the URSA Mini 4.6K, or similar Super 35 camera.

The free version also shows you sunrise/sunset or moonrise/moonset and the golden hour and blue hour for Today. The paid version allows you to input any date and other options.

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Rick, it's showing .00065" for the Ursa Mini 4.6K

Well that's good to know. I had thought it might be about .008, but I'll set mine to 0.0065! That makes a big difference. Thanks so much!

My pleasure, sir.

Over thinking this perhaps, but I wonder if they truly derived that 0.0065 figure mathematically or did they just base the CoC setting from the size of the photosite since obviously the photosite is a theoretical minimum resolution. If it was based off the photosite, then it would be 0.0055 on the 4.6K sensor. I’ll leave it at 0.0065 this time and see how it looks.

I do not know about sensors, a,ways used a HFD table for the lenses I use, but on film, the CoC used is larger than the given "grain" size on a given film. We used the same CoC size for HFD calculations, regardless of the film, larger grain on Tri-X, finer grain on Pan-X. So I would go with the .0065, If this helps Rick...
Cheers

Just to be clear, that wasn't a typo on my part. The CoC shown in pCam for the Ursa 4.6K is 0.00065". That's triple zero, six, five inches. Not double zero.

Ivon, that was my mistake. I'll plug that number in but I think it's wrong. Just got back from my trip and the shoot went very well. I recorded in ProRes 422 HQ 2K 16:9 both windowed and downscaled from the open gate using only the 50mm APO. Rather than follow exactly what the Easy DoF app calculated for my hyperfocal distances and depth of field, I used Focus Assist red lines to keep everything on the field in focus at T16. So I'm at mid-field on the sidelines and just set my camera focus to 30' and it worked!

Ivon, what would your pCam app suggest the focus should be to keep the entire rugby playing field in focus? Empirically 30' was fine.


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Ivon, that was my mistake. I'll plug that number in but I think it's wrong. Just got back from my trip and the shoot went very well. I recorded in ProRes 422 HQ 2K 16:9 both windowed and downscaled from the open gate using only the 50mm APO. Rather than follow exactly what the Easy DoF app calculated for my hyperfocal distances and depth of field, I used Focus Assist red lines to keep everything on the field in focus at T16. So I'm at mid-field on the sidelines and just set my camera focus to 30' and it worked!

Ivon, what would your pCam app suggest the focus should be to keep the entire rugby playing field in focus? Empirically 30' was fine.


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pCam says the hyperfocal distance is 31' 3" so you are close. Focused at 30' with a 50mm lens at T16 on an Ursa 4.6K with 16:9 aspect ratio you have everything from 15'4" to 767'5" in focus.

Great, that was just my quick empirical finding as the lens has a witness mark at 30' so thanks again for all your assistance, it worked!


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Ivon, I plugged in that extremely small value 0.00064 and that gives a very small depth of field. I don't know where that comes from but I calculated the CoC as 0.01649 and plugged that into the Easy DoF app, and it gave me the identical hyperfocal distance of 31'3". So the CoC in pCam should be 0.01649 or 0.0165, definitely not 0.00065. Remember the photo sites are 0.0055mm so a CoC of 0.0165 would be 3 times the photosite. Makes sense?


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Ivon, I plugged in that extremely small value 0.00064 and that gives a very small depth of field. I don't know where that comes from but I calculated the CoC as 0.01649 and plugged that into the Easy DoF app, and it gave me the identical hyperfocal distance of 31'3". So the CoC in pCam should be 0.01649 or 0.0165, definitely not 0.00065. Remember the photo sites are 0.0055mm so a CoC of 0.0165 would be 3 times the photosite. Makes sense?


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Rick are you working in mm or in? The value I gave you is in inches. A quick conversion says we're close if you're in mm.


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Oops! D'oh! Good catch. Now things are making sense.

My APO lens is calibrated in inches and my Fujinon is calibrated in metres, looks like I was mixing apples and oranges as this was the first time I've used CoC as a tool! So I need to work with two values for circle of conversion!

Working backwards from the hyperfocal distance determined by pCam of 31'3" or 9525mm, then:
for metric measures, CoC is 0.0164042; more accurately CoC is 0.00064583 for imperial, but 0.00065 is fine.

This means when calculating hyperfocal distance manually in imperial measures, I need to convert my lens focal length to imperial as well.


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I'm sure there are a few people here that dream of being a cinematographer for a big budget film with an A-list cast and an internationally-acclaimed Director. You know when you finally don't have to worry about compromise, when you work with the best, for the best, with all the resources imaginable at your disposal. Something magical and timeless like this perhaps:

https://twitter.com/zacuto/status/838917208818479104



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Yes, it is nice. LIM wanted some very specific Kodak Wratten filters for Titanic. The filters were out of production then, but they didn't care what the cost was, just get them -- and I did, meeting their deadline in the process. Love it when you do not have to worry about staying inside a budget
Cheers

As part of my slow journey toward earning an ASC membership, there is an area in which I could use additional illumination. No, I'm not talking about my basement. I mean illumination as in greater understanding of the appropriate Circle of Confusion values I should be using. Basically I've been fine with the CoC value I plug into my EasyDOF iPhone app when using my APO primes and shooting 4.6K or any of the larger resolutions, but I recently decided when I started to shoot raw 2K, that I should use a different CoC for the smaller sensor window. I used roughly half the CoC value. When I did that, my depth of field in EasyDOF became a lot less. But when I was actually shooting I seemed to have much more DOF than the app indicated.

I'm not sure if should have used a different value at all because the photosites are the same size (5.5 microns) and surely the limits of the photosites are very important to knowing what CoC is sensible.

What should I be using for CoC when shooting or recording to 2K/HD? Thanks for any advice...

For 4.6K I use 0.01649 for metric (about 0.00065 imperial) and for 2K I use 0.00733 for metric.


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From John Brawley
https://twitter.com/brawlster/status/847248350449500160



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